I asked a machinist friend what he would use to shine up some stainless and he told me a scotchbrite pad. So, I take one to the bolt of a rifle of mine and now I have to repolish the whole thing!
Lesson learned : don't use scotchbrite pads on your polished bolts!
Are there any regular household things that will polish a bolt (toothpaste and baking soda) or do I need to buy a special $100/oz tube?

I'm a long way from a pro- there's the usual polishing compounds, not expensive, and stones.

Some of the pros say to only polish a bolt with stones.

I've polished some parts, guards, etc, with compound by hand, no powered machinery involved and gotten good results.

Sounds like a situation I could get myself into- I'd consider turning it over to a professional.

I don't care for highly polished bolts. But if you must, Simichrome or Flitz.

or Mothers or blue magic...

You more than likely use to rough of a pad. There are many grits available.

For a really nice polish, Flitz is hard to beat but be prepared to do a lot of rubbing.

Thanks guys. Can you get this stuff at walmart or lowes? Will the regular Flitz work or do I need to get the "gun" compound?

What look are you wanting on your bolt, a mirror look or just shiny matte?

A hint for you is that no matter what you do with abrasives or polishing, in general it is good to have all the scratches go the same direction. whether scotchbrite, coarse sandpaper, or fine emory cloth always try to keep the scratches going parallel to each other.

Anyway, to my knowledge there is only one grade of flitz. For store bought abrasives car polish (not car wax but car polish) also works ok if slow. I don't like toothpaste as it always seems too coarse to me but can clean tarnished steel and make it look better than before it was tarnished but that is a far way from polished. Plus I prefer to use oil based abrasives instead of water based ones.

Also, some 1500 grit wet/dry paper used with oil might be good to do before the simichrome treatment.

Mark,
Great advice. I will try it and let you know.